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During the opening ceremonies of the super bowl, a squadron of Blackhawk choppers flew over the stadium. I live two miles west and they came roaring over my house. I was fine until they banked and that wup,wup,wup sound started which made the hair on my neck stand up.
Try this: https://www.facebook.com/groups/58069447754/
I seem to have told you somewhat wrong in the first place. It’s 196th Light Infantry Brigade, US Army.
Never felt much of a connection with the Americal either, especially since attending one of their reunions.
All I can find is a Facebook page for a 196th training brigade (TSB). May I have other directions, please?
I never have felt a connection to the Americal Division.
Gary: Did you mean “Guestbook” page?
I don’t believe I have come across a Facebook one,
Yes, Facebook. Search for 196th Infantry Brigade, US Army. There’s also one for the Americal Division.
By the way, I tried to put that on the 196th guestbook page, but it only takes 500 characters per post. I started cutting and pasting it in pieces, which left it backwards from top to bottom and with some strange characters inserted from somewhere. I finally just gave up.
Thanks for the explanation. I wondered why you quit in the middle of it.
I posted this on the 196th BDE Facebook page today and I’d like to put it here too. It’s important.
Today, I went to have lunch with 2 of my grandkids, both in 3rd grade at the same school. While waiting for the kids to come in, a young man sat down and said he’d noticed the CIB on my hat. We got to talking and he had one too, from the current war. That little blue badge created an instant bond between us. Later, as I walked my grand daughter back to her class, one of her classmates looked up at my hat and said, “My Daddy has one of those blue rifles.”
The point is that our younger brothers and sisters are out there, in the millions. It may not be commonly known, but the number of men and women who have served inside the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan is about the same number as we who served in Vietnam: Nearly 2 1/2 million. They are the second largest generation of combat Veteran’s since WWII, and just barely second. And, no, that’s not counting those who served multiple tours or those who served in adjacent areas and waters.
If you have a hat with a CIB on it, or anything designating service in Vietnam, wear it. They will approach you most of the time and it gives us an opportunity to welcome them home in a manner which we never got. It gives us an opportunity to mentor them through the re-adjustment or just to shake their hand and say “Thanks.” It gives us a chance to let them know we have their backs.
“Never again” is the motto of the Vietnam Veteran’s of America, and whether you belong to that organization or not, it should be our PERSONAL motto. Never again will a soldier come home and feel alone.
Do your part. Make yourself available to them.
Amen!
The passing of these two brothers should send a message to all our brothers! GET TO A REUNION! Do not let a shoulda, woulda, coulda get you!
Someday, one of us will be the last one. And, it’s sooner than we think!
Rest in peace, brothers……I met Marty at the 2008 Hilton Head reunion. He was a good guy……Condolences to both families.
More bad news; I was just informed that Bruce Martin aka “MARTY”, has died due to complications from surgery.
Hey brothers!~
For those of you who may remember Al Firman aka Shorty from Vietnam, I received a reply from his wife on an email that I attempted to contact him that he passed away last January from Lung Cancer. RIP brother!
And now I need to work on the Taps list. I have two more names to add to the taps list that have fallen since we got back across the pond. I would appreciate hearing from anyone knows of someone missing from our taps list.
Larry and Carl: I see it the same way. As a medic I felt much closer to my Charlie Company comrades than I ever did the HHC group. Not to detract from HHC which had plenty of good guys, but sharing the danger, trauma, good times and everything else creates a real bond.
Larry,
Robert Lewis was wounded on 1/6/68 but passed away on 1/10/68. I think we talked about this at the reunion. Bromley German and James Turner was our arty F/O and RTO. They were 3/82 arty but as far as I’m concerned, they were Charlie company.
Carl:
I think we did talk about this at the reunion on Robert. Some of the research that I did on the KIA’s links everyone to what is called “event date”. I think I would like to keep his KIA date as the date he was wounded so that he will be linked with this horrible day or “event date”.
My thoughts on including brave men attached to our company and got killed is that they are one of us. The duty officer’s log list them as killed without distinguishing them from Charlie Company men. I also list medics that were attached to us but actually members of HHC. The great medics we had spent a lot more time with us than other attached people. We had a couple or F/O & RTO killed while in the bush with us during my time. I feel very strongly that they were one of us. As you know Peggy Rider (Bromley German’s girl friend at the time of his death) hangs with our group at reunions and I consider her one of us also.
Larry, I agree with that 100%. No argument from me.
I finally got the KIA list updated. I have worked with the Coffelt data base in making sure our list is accurate. The people at Coffelt are great people that are very dedicated to what they do. They do a tremendous job and I think Ken Davis for his help.
Now, if you see any errors or omissions, let me know so I can complete our honor roll.
Gary,
Did very little as a platoon. I preferred a crowd. More targets for the bad guys and more fire power for us. I could see where your incident could happen easily. .
Bill: That wasn’t much of a problem for us by late 70 and 71 because we rarely moved around as a full company. Most of the time, we operated independently as woefully understrength platoons. The distance from the point man to the drag man might not be 12-15 people!
I do recall moving as a company once, though. We were crossing a big rice paddy in a company file when the dinks opened up on us. My platoon was near the back of the file and Ching and I (the machine-gun crew) began laying fire on a little island in front of us where the rounds were coming from. Our remembrances of that little fight are far different from the platoon leading the file because, unknown to us, they had looped around that island and were on the far side of it. THEIR recollections invariably include being fired up by someone at the back of the file…..us. 🙂
Gary,
I believe a lot comes from where you are in the company formation when stuff happens. In August, 69 we were in single file in heavy jungle when we got hit going up a mountain. I was probably in the middle of the company in single file. The whole time time I was sitting on my rump while the firefight went on. Harper was up front about two or three men back. He was knew in country. I know his perspective was different so you are right.
I couldn’t believe it when I talked to you the first time on this firefight. My squad leader Duck Detwiler was walking point and me being his RTO (because I was a FNG) I was right behind him. He walked into a bunker complex and told me to hold up he was going to check one out and they popped up and shot him in the chest and all the rest of the of his comrades opened up on us. We had to have two cobras come in and put down heavy fire within ten feet of us on both sides of us so we could get out of there. It seemed like we was in our ambush for hours. You told me you guys were just sitting along the trail in the shade wanting to know what the holdup was. I am sure I probably did not want to say anything on the radio to let them know I was alive because I was only about ten yards (I kept my distance like the army says) from the bunker where Duck got killed. My squad size was 13 going into that day and we had our squad leader killed and 9 wounded and the guys 200 yards behind us did not know anything was going on. It blew my mind as you were in my platoon but not in my squad that day.
We CA’d into an LZ near Thein Phouc that had to have been at least a battalion-sized insertion. I guess this because at least 3 lifts of 8 or10 birds came in and both the battalion and brigade commanders were in the LZ. (Of course, nobody told us shit.)
I know all of Charlie company was the first lift because we all loaded up on the choppers in Antenna Valley and went straight into another operation. The other lifts had a comparable amount of troops so they had to be other companies.
Anyhow, the door gunners started hosing down the jungle as we came in and gunships were working over a hilltop right off the LZ. When we all hit the “ground,” I was carrying the sandbag of grenades and broke through the matted grass of the LZ and stuck up to my armpits. Everybody ran off and left me out there feeling like a pop-up target. I stayed there, unable to extract myself and with only a sandbag full of grenades to hide behind until the next lift came in. It probably wasn’t long, but it seemed like all day. A chopper had to lurch to the side to keep from landing on me and I grabbed the leg of the first guy off and wouldn’t let go until he pulled me out, even though he kicked me in the face trying to get free because somebody was doing an awful lot of shooting by then.
Finally making it to the safety of the tree line, I found myself among people I’d never seen before and they were crawling around and shooting at something. I had no target, nobody to tell me what do do, no clue where Charlie company was during all this,no idea what was going on and I was sitting backed up to a small hill with other GI’s on top….so….I opened a can of C-rats and had a casual meal while watching the goings on.
Eventually, the firing died off and I just walked around the LZ until I found my guys, not one of whom had missed me.
The point is that we were all there, in the same place at the same time, but we all remember something different. The guys I was among were fighting some kind of battle which I did not participate in and the Charlie company guys will tell you today that the LZ wasn’t hot. It might not have been where they were, but it was at least warm where I was and SOMEBODY was shooting at me while I was stuck out in the open.
When talking with other Vets, even those from the same platoon, it sometimes seems like we weren’t even fighting the same war. Everybody notices something different, even in the same event at the same time. Like cops interviewing witnesses, the more people you hear from, the more complete the picture becomes.
Chuck, now I’m wondering about all three of you. Been some interesting reading on here of late, and a common theme seems to be to talk to other veterans is helpful. I know this to be true as 4 of my best buddies up here are vietnam vets, 2 huey gunners, 1 chinook crew chief, and an AF forward observer. We can get together and relax with never a thought to VN or it can all come down to a tough day of conversation. Two were at hamburger hill with totally different stories, which always seems to be a common theme. Go SEAHAWKS
Terry
You laugh but when Larry and Rex were out here visiting, the three of us went to a salon and had a pedicure….. Rex insisted… It was great! No shit. I have gone back for follow up visits. You guys gotta try it…… If anybody gives you a hard time about it, just smack them. If you need help, Larry, Rex and I will come out.
By the way, I wrote a short story about one of those encounters too, but I don’t know if Harper would let me do it on his website. I’t’s not dirty, but it’s only about as “clean” as one can make a story about that subject.
Whatever you are brave enough to post won’t bother me. I won’t be the one you have to answer to.
Not quite that far down. LOL
Gary,
Was it a pedicure?
I had a couple of pretty Vietnamese girls take care of me too in Danang. But, it wasn’t a manicure. LOL
I only had a manicure once in my life……at a barber shop in Hawk Hill…….Two pretty Vietnamese girls…..one on each hand.
I guess I should have added the guys screwing in the fuses on the bombs and loading them onto the aircraft.
Gary, Some of these were Marine and Navy also. The Marines flew most of our sorties out of Chu Lai. I guess they were in a hurry to get out of the heat and back to the EM club!
What the heck is this??????
Larry,
Hard telling what’s on those reports. Never knew anyone in C2/1 named Henery Fortson. It had to be a typo. That isn’t to say there wasn’t someone named that. If you guys were like us, we hardly ever saw the other platoons except when we set up for the night and tied in with them on our NDP.
That’s how it was during my time in Nam. I knew our platoon guys really well, the other two platoons, not so well.
LT, you gettin’ your toe nails done? Oh, I know, it’s Missar so he can feel pretty walking in his sandals in sunny Arizona!
Damn. I never realized the Air Force lost that many bombs! Gives ya great confidence in our “high tech” weapons, don’t it? LOL